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Differential head integrated touchdown sensors for hard disk drives

a technology of hard disk drives and integrated sensors, which is applied in the field of differential head integrated touchdown sensors for hard disk drives, can solve the problems of drive failure, no single technique working across all media radii,

Active Publication Date: 2010-09-21
WESTERN DIGITAL TECH INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]The disk drive includes media such as one or more disks, a slider, and a head residing on the slider. The head has an air-bearing surface (ABS), a portion of which contacts the media during touchdown. The head further includes a plurality of

Problems solved by technology

Touchdown may also occur at other times during disk drive operation, for example due to changes in environmental conditions, operation of the disk drive outside of desired parameters, or contamination to the head that causes the prolonged contact described above.
However, no single technique works across all media radii.
This is because prolonged contact is generally undesirable during operation as it may lead to drive failure.

Method used

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  • Differential head integrated touchdown sensors for hard disk drives
  • Differential head integrated touchdown sensors for hard disk drives
  • Differential head integrated touchdown sensors for hard disk drives

Examples

Experimental program
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Embodiment Construction

[0013]FIG. 1 is a diagram of a portion of an exemplary embodiment of a disk drive 50. For simplicity, components are omitted. In addition, for clarity, FIG. 1 is not drawn to scale. The disk drive 50 includes a media 60 and a slider 70. On the slider 70 resides head 100, which includes integrated touchdown sensors 150 and 160. Each of the touchdown sensors 150 and 160 is a thermal sensor and, in one embodiment, is a thermistor.

[0014]The touchdown sensor 150 in combination with the touchdown sensor 160 detects touchdown based upon the temperature of the head 100. The disk drive 50 is shown at touchdown. Consequently, the head 100 contacts the media 60 in a region of the ABS termed a touchdown region. Frictional heating due to contact between the media 60 and head 100 raises the local temperature of the head 100 in the region proximate to where touchdown occurs. The touchdown sensor 150 is located in this touchdown region. Thus, the touchdown sensor 150 is able to detect a local tempe...

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PUM

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Abstract

A method and system for providing a disk drive is described. The disk drive includes media such as one or more disks, a slider, and a head residing on the slider. The head has an air-bearing surface (ABS), a portion of which contacts the media during touchdown. The head further includes a plurality of touchdown sensors. A first touchdown sensor is proximate to the ABS, while a second touchdown sensor is distal from the ABS. The touchdown sensors are capable of detecting a temperature change of 0.1 degree Celsius or, in some embodiments, smaller.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 435,280, entitled “HEAD INTEGRATED TOUCHDOWN SENSOR FOR HARD DISK DRIVES”, filed on the same day as the present application and incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND[0002]Disk drives typically use heads residing on sliders to read from and write to the magnetic media. Read and write transducers residing in the head are flown at a small, controlled spacing above to the magnetic medium during read and write operations. Although generally desired to operate in close proximity to but not touching the disk, the head may also contact the media. This prolonged contact, for example on the order of tens of microseconds or more, is known as touchdown. For example, heads typically use a thermal actuator that generates heat to control the head-media spacing. Heat generated by the thermal actuator causes local thermal expansion of the head, which locally reduces the spacing betwee...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): G11B21/02G11B5/02G11B19/02
CPCG11B5/3133G11B5/3136G11B5/607G11B5/6076G11B5/455
Inventor BAJIKAR, SATEESHCHANDRA S.FOWLER, DAVID E.
Owner WESTERN DIGITAL TECH INC
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